Both candidates entered the election predicting optimism, but it was Trump’s campaign that rose Tuesday night, while Harris’ supporters at Howard University faced disappointment.

Senate Republicans reversed control of the upper chamber after four years of Democratic control. Meanwhile, House Democrats could flip the lower chamber after key races call.

With the election nearly over, here are the top takeaways from the presidential and congressional elections.

Trump tops the polls again to win a second term in the White House

Heading into Election Day, Trump and Harris were neck and neck both nationally and across the seven battlegrounds.

But the candidates’ schedules in the last month of the campaign made it clear they were prioritizing separate paths to the White House. Trump held dozens of rallies in the Sun Belt — Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina — while Harris chose to spend most of his time campaigning in the Blue Wall, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

However, by Wednesday morning, when the 2024 winner was declared, Trump had already been declared the winner in every battleground that had been called: Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

In addition, Trump’s margins in those states not only topped polls this cycle, but exceeded his marks in the 2020 and 2016 presidential election cycles.

Early Wednesday morning, NBC News even predicted that Trump would win the national popular vote, another first in his third general election campaign.

The Associated Press called the contest for Trump at 5:44 a.m. Wednesday after winning Wisconsin and surpassing the 270 electoral vote threshold.

Trump is making massive inroads with black and Latino voters

Republicans have been touting increased support among minority voters for years, and while that didn’t deliver the red tide some predicted in the 2022 midterm elections, it certainly showed up in the 2024 exit polls.

Exit polls saw Trump with about 20% support among black men in both Georgia and North Carolina, battlegrounds that proved critical to Trump’s second run to the White house. By comparison, in 2020 Trump saw only 11% support from black voters in Georgia and 7% in North Carolina.

Trump did even better among Latino men, with the NBC poll showing Trump actually leading Harris nationally among the demographic.

This comes after the Harris campaign argued that Trump’s rhetoric over the past two weeks, along with controversial comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the Madison Square Garden rally, has shifted the Latino vote back to Democrats.

Money can’t buy elections

Harris’ campaign easily outperformed Trump’s, but it proved to make no difference in the election.

Despite raising at least $1 billion in about three months, an unprecedented amount of money, Harris will not succeed President Joe Biden as the next commander in chief.

In the last three months of the cycle, Harris’ team repeatedly boasted in memos that their ground game strategy in battleground states had outperformed the Trump machine, which has largely outsourced its strategy to outside groups such as Elon Musk’s America PAC and Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action.

The Republicans are wresting the Senate

The GOP easily flipped control of the Senate Tuesday night as Democrats faced a tough map that defended vulnerable incumbents.

The first sign of Republican victory came early when Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) easy to beat Democrat Glenn Elliott, mayor of Wheeling in the race to replace the departure Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV).

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) lost re-election when Republican challenger Bernie Moreno flipped his seat and Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) defeated independent challenger Dan Osborn, guaranteeing a Republican majority.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also survived a challenge from Democrat Colin Allred, further helping the GOP maintain its lead in the upper chamber.

Democrats scored some wins, with Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland defeating former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan in Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester winning the Delaware Senate race.

House Democrats are scrambling to take control

House control may not be known for several days, as the winners of key toss-up districts are still out being calculated.

But Democrats flipped at least two seats, signaling their march toward winning the lower chamber.

New York Democrat John Mannion defeated Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) and Democrat Josh Riley unseated Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) in New York’s 19th District.

Only five of the 22 spots were called at 5:30 a.m. EST Wednesday, but that could change in the coming hours and days as the winners are determined.

Candidates matter

With Gov.-elect Josh Stein (D-NC) quickly winning the race against the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC). Robinson’s string of controversies underscored Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) argument that the quality of candidates matters.

Arizona’s Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake is another example of a Trumpian candidate who couldn’t rely solely on the former president’s endorsement. Lake trailed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) for the open state Senate seat with 53 percent reporting, even as Trump maintained a two-point lead over Harris.

The quality of the candidates wasn’t just an issue for Republicans.

Volumes could be written about whether Democrats should have held an open primary rather than swapping Harris for President Joe Biden. After all, Harris never made it out of Iowa during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

And based on exit polls, Harris clearly had trouble convincing voters that he offered a substantially different approach to handling the economy and immigration, both top issues this cycle.

Abortion amendments have a mixed night

For the first time since then Roe v. Wade was struck down, a state abortion amendment failed when voters were given a chance to make their voices heard.

Florida voters failed to meet the 60 percent threshold needed to pass the ballot question for Amendment 4, meaning the six-week abortion ban will remain in place.

The amendment, if passed, would have enshrined access to abortion up to about 24 weeks.

The failed measure is a win for DeSantis, who enacted the six-week ban and campaigned against the amendment.

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South Dakota voters also rejected an abortion amendment establishing a constitutional right to abortion, while Nebraska voters passed Measure 434, which limits abortion after the first trimester.

However, in Maryland, Arizona, and New York, voters chose to enshrine protections against abortion in the state constitution. Missouri voters overturned a near-total abortion ban by passing Amendment 3, which enshrines abortion protections in the state constitution and allows the procedure for about 24 weeks.